DETROIT – Playing in close games seem to be the norm of late for the Detroit Red Wings.

And that was again the fact Tuesday night at Joe Louis Arena.

The Wings got a 36-save performance from Jimmy Howard and goals from Johan Franzen and Niklas Kronwall to skate by the Colorado Avalanche, 2-1.

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It’s the fourth straight game the Wings have been a part of with that identical score. The Wings have five points out of a possible eight points during that stretch.

“It will be like this all the way down the stretch,” Wings forward Henrik Zetterberg said. “They are all going to be tight games. If you’re up two goals, they get one and all of a sudden it’s back to being a tight game. In the end we found a way to get the two points and that’s what we needed to find a way to do.”

The Wings began the night outside of the playoffs, 10th out of 14 teams, and bolted right up to the fourth seed in the Western Conference.

“It’s crazy,” Howard said. “You play a game Sunday afternoon, you’re in fourth place and by Monday night you’re in tenth. It’s crazy how many teams are grouped together there, so you just got to find a way.

“It was definitely good to get the two points,” Howard continued “It’s unfortunate they got one so late in the game but those things happen. As you can see in the standings, it’s huge for us every single night to find a way to get two points.”

“But these are important,” Zetterberg said. “A win takes us up in a playoff spot and a loss keeps us out. That’s how it’s going to be. You have to play every game, every night and if you do that and win games you’ll get rewarded in the end.”

After being held scoreless for a third straight game through one period, Franzen lit the lamp seven minutes into the second period.

Franzen started the play by getting a stick on a shot from the point by Colorado defenseman Stefan Elliott. The puck deflected over to Damien Brunner and he then fed Franzen just before center ice. From that point Franzen skated like he was shot out of a cannon to free himself from the two pursuing defensemen and then sent a wicked wrist shot upper corner to beat Giguere.

“I only have one move and that’s it,” Franzen smiled. “That’s the only thing I got. That was a good pass by (Brunner). I think there was a (defenseman) in between and he got it over his stick and I got the breakaway.”

With less than three minutes to play in the second period, Kronwall put the Wings up 2-0 using the lively end boards to his advantage. Finding an open lane, Kronwall unleashed a rocket that slammed of the boards, shot back out and then deflected into the back of the net off the right skate of Giguere.

“Yeah,” Kronwall laughed when asked if that’s how he drew up that goal. “(Daniel) Cleary and (Justin Abdelkader) did a great job in front of the net. I couldn’t really get a shooting lane through. I just tried to get it somewhat close and the puck went in.”

After holding an opponent without a goal after two periods for a fourth straight game, it was Howard’s turn to close the door.

John Mitchell had the first chance to spoil Howard’s bid at his second shutout of the season. All alone in front of the Wings’ goalie, Mitchell had Howard down on the ice, but couldn’t get his backhand over the goalie’s outstretched glove hand.

Howard then stoned PA Parenteau with a partial glove save on breakaway that seemed to put an exclamation on what would have been his 13th career shutout.

However, Stastny spoiled that with 1:30 left to play, backhanding in his own rebound with Giguere pulled for the extra attacker.

“I didn’t think we were as good defensively as we have been,” Wings coach Mike Babcock said. “We gave up quality chances down the stretch where we didn’t sort things out, they came in home free. He made a save on both of them.

“We could have even been better when it was 6-on-5, to tell you the truth,” Babcock continued. “We’ve got to get better for sure. This was our loosest game in the last while. To win on a nightly basis, you can’t leave your goalie like that as much as we did tonight. So we just have to take the good win, it’s a real good win for us and get better and get prepared for the next one.”

The Wings had a golden opportunity to finish off the Avalanche with a 5-on-3 power play for 1:03 after Chuck Kobasew was sent off for boarding Brendan Smith, but could not sustain much pressure.

“We’re creating our chances, but we can’t get the puck in the net,” Zetterberg said. “But it is tight too. Both teams are playing good defense. You’re not getting many chances and you have to take advantage of the ones you get all the time. We need to do that.”

Send comments to chuck.pleiness@macombdaily.com and visit his blog at redwingsfront.wordpress.com